Long Way Home – Eva Dolan

About the book

Published: 19th June 2014 (Vintage)

A man is burnt alive in a suburban garden shed.

DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit to investigate the murder. Their victim is quickly identified as a migrant worker and a man several people might have had good reason to see dead. A convicted arsonist and member of a far-right movement has just been released from prison, while witnesses claim to have seen the dead man fighting with one of the town’s most prominent slum landlords.

Zigic and Ferreira know all too well the problems that come with dealing with a community that has more reason than most not to trust the police, but when another migrant worker is attacked, tensions rapidly begin to rise as they search for their killer.

My Review

This is the first book in a new series featuring DI Zigic and DS Ferreira who work together on the Hate Crimes Unit in Peterborough. Peterborough is my home town so at times this was tough reading, not just because of it’s subject matter, but also because of how Peterborough is portrayed. It features the less than desirable areas of Peterborough which I recognise and do understand some of the challenges that are faced in those areas (honestly, Peterborough isn’t all bad!).

Britain has changed and nowhere more so than in Peterborough. In the past decade 24,000 immigrants moved into this city. That is more than one in eight of the population.

Dolan has tackled this issue and its impact on both the immigrants and the local people head on. It is an interesting and topical subject which is handled sensitively and realistically, highlighting the prejudice against immigrants and also the terrible conditions they work and live in. Long Way Home is a great combination of a emotive subject and a gripping detective thriller, Zigic and Ferreira are a wonderful combination – they are like chalk and cheese that completely works!

This is a brilliant debut, Zigic and Ferreira are well-rounded and developed characters, having both a relevant back story to explain their commitment to the Hate Crimes Unit and those members of the public they serve, they have empathy with the victims from shared experiences. Also, Long Way Home is well plotted out, building tension through the narrative and the fractious relationship between the locals and the immigrants. It keeps the reader guessing through to the end of the book and I look forward to reading Tell No Tales – after hearing about these books and seeing the great reviews I, of course, purchased the first 3 books together!

About Eva Dolan

Eva Dolan is an Essex-based copywriter and intermittently successful poker player. Shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger for unpublished authors when she was just a teenager, the first novels in her series starring two detectives from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit, Long Way Home and Tell No Tales were published to widespread critical acclaim. Tell No Tales was shortlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year and the third in the series, After You Die, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.